Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville clinched the largest haul of provisional championship points after Saturday, being the fastest with a 4.9-second margin ahead of Toyota’s Elfyn Evans. Ogier was left in third place, 11.6 seconds behind.
Ogier himself claimed that he lost the race purely because of his starting position on Friday. However, after Friday’s final stage attack, Ogier’s gap to the leader was only 6.6 seconds, so his pace on Saturday did not quite reach the top either.
“I mean, coming here in this weekend, I knew it would be tough. It’s been actually better than expected to be into this fight, but unfortunately we didn’t manage to quite turn it around today,” Ogier summarized.
“It’s been a good day for us, but not good enough. Thierry was having this little extra things to make the difference. The car was not as perfect as yesterday because of this rain expected. We need to keep pushing tomorrow anyway. There is a lot of points to catch for the team, so not everything is over.”
Ogier acknowledged that rising to win the overall competition during Sunday’s four special stages might be too much to ask.
“There are still tricky stages left, especially Power Stage. We all know it very well, but it remains a tricky piece of road. So anyway, we need to keep pushing. Like I say, for this extra bonus points of the Sunday for the team,” Ogier contemplated.
“I’m thinking about the victory, of course, but it is probably a bit too much now. But you never know. Rally is never over until it’s over.”
